Away versus WAMDSAD

Captains Report
Keith Walls

WAMDSAD or “the night I learnt to Wham da Sad.”

After a four week absence (during which the team had flattened all before them) the Mayor of Flair returned for one night only to take back the baton of captaincy. His German escapades had come to a temporary halt allowing him one night to get back on the baize. As it transpired it was to be a glorious night to return to the helm, or a glorious night for the helm to return, depending on your point of view.

While he was away, Slugger Judge Budge had steered the ship through some rocky waters and it was nice to return to see us top of the heap, king of the hill, the big cheese, number uno honchos...

As long as there were no slip ups, a decent win at the WAMDSAD would have us on the brink of securing the section title and put us into the quarters. The only other thing left to be decided would be the seedings which are dependant on the average points taken by each of the last eight sides.

With Brad not around we had seven and the Mayor took the opportunity to drop himself from the first six. Firstly he wanted to see at first hand how his troops had come on in the last few weeks, and secondly avoid the embarrassment of coming back and promptly getting beat!

The captain took a leaf out his numbers two's book (stop it!) by sending ‘Tredwell the dependable’ out to bat first. He broke, should have dished but didn't, but then another opening appeared and it was all over. And to be honest this set the tone for the evening. One after another JY, Judge Budge, Lee and the ever improving Neil rattled off their frames in similar fashion.

At the break it was 5-1 with Swanny the only player with a ‘ring doughnut’ next to his name after ‘knuckling’ a cut black into the middle.

Mark Swann 0

Lee graciously stepped down from the back six and it was a straight swop for the Mayor of Flair to come in and get his arm oiled up.

Treddy, JY, Neil and the Judge posted their doubles for the evening and the pressure fell onto Swanny to avoid losing twice. We have only had one double loss so far this season but it became two when Swanny lost his second game, turning his ring doughnut into a double Bagel.

The mayor stepped in and rattled a long red when the dish was on but then given a second opportunity to put this puppy to sleep he snaffled up the chance, and picked up a much needed win – smoke my pork it was 10-2 .

Very little else to report - It had a very ‘end of season’ feel to it. The job had been done last week against the Thatched Cottage Cheese. Neil bottled the only possible ‘Pointless Flair Shot of the Week’ when deciding to cut the black to the middle instead of taking the double. He missed the cut as well - there's a lesson to be learnt.

For the record, here's the err… records with one divisional game to go :

Brad ‘the most hated man in pool’ Robinson 9/10 (90%)
Lee ‘Captain Wannabe’ Greenwood 7/8 (87%)
Andy ‘Treddy’ Tredwell 11/13 (85%)
John ‘early exit’ Young 9/11 (81%)
Neil ‘Class of Cameron’ Cameron 8/10 (80%)
Kevin ‘Slugger’ Southam 9/12 (75%)
Keith ‘Mayor of Flair’ Walls 7/10 (70%)
Mark ‘The Flair’ Swann 5/11 (45%)

The top teams currently left according to rank are :

Racks A 12.65
Bell BAPL 12.33
Pond House C 12.30
Forresters 11.66
Racks Pack 11.42
Thatch A 10.55
Thatch B 10.14
Cookham 9.55
Bell D 9.37

In the final week of the season Pond House C play the Forresters, with the winner taking their division. If we can better the Forresters total by 2 we can nip fourth place in the seedings. The other interesting game is Cookham v Bell D, where the winner will finish second in the division and take the last quarter final place.

So the final game of the season has us hosting the Farmers Boy. The Captain will be missing in action once again and hopefully back for the quarters - which is by no means certain or wanted!